First Ultramarathon coming up soon

lizsmith, it's funny, I was very nervous for my first IM, but the second one was... meh, all good. for this ultra the distance isn't a big deal, 50km is long but not really long and not much longer than a regular marathon, plus I don't have to spend 6 hours on my bike first

the trails part is the hard thing. elevation gain, roots, rocks, etc..

bah

I'll wind up doing a few more IM level events for sure. Celtman in Scotland and Norseman both look like excellent events and brutally hard I may do the new IM Canada since they are not longer in Penticton (I did the last race there last year) and Whistler is a nice area to play and closer than Penticton anyway.

Advise for IM? If you are confident in the swim, go out into the pack, find a spot, get on someone's feet and stay there. If you aren't confident, pick a line inside on the buoys, most people go outside and it gets clotted up, plus you are swimming with folks who are less confident and more likely to pull up sharp or get in your way.

On the bike, don't be a hero. Stick in your HR groove and don't push just because you feel awesome (and you will). Do NOT stand on the hills unless you are about to fall over on the bike, use your gears, it's why your bike has 20 of them right? Cadence, cadence cadence. Cadence is more important than high gears, you have to run after. And speaking of cadence and the run, in the last few km of the bike, HIGH cadence, wash out the lactate.

On the run, race to your plan. Eat as much as you can stomach. If you can't stomach it, puke, wash your mouth out and eat something else. Seriously. Encourage people you pass, they will remember you if they pass you (or if they don't) and you'll have their good wishes with you for the race. Tough it up in the last 10km. Just shut up and run.

Which IM are you doing?

jturnerx, this race has 6000 feet gain (and drop) and that's been a huge challenge. I am comfortable walking up the hills, but want to go faster than I'm technically capable of going down them. I see people bounding down hills that I'm doing step by step and it frustrates the heck out of me, but I worry about blowing an ankle since I've had some injury there in the past.

I've been warned about the aid stations and I've been warned to not sit down unless I'm in a washroom. I've been doing gels on my training runs and am good for 1 gel / 30 minutes right now. I also have a hand bottle of gatorade mix and a 1.5l waist water bag. Aid stations are at 6.5, 15, 23, 30, 37 and 43. My plan is to refill the hand bottle at all of them and the waist bag whenever it goes empty, hopefully only every second or third.

Time to the first aid station is 1 hour, it covers a good chunk of elevation. Time to the 15km mark is another 1.5 hours as it does a peak hit and then a bunch of minor undulation before a huge drop. An hour out to 23 and another hour out to 30. 1.5 hours up to 37 which does another peak and some undulation before dropping. 37 to 43 is another hour, it goes back up the second peak and then back down a fast but runable switchback section. 43-50 should be about an hour, the last 4.5km are mostly downhill and took me 30minutes yesterday, but I was pretty fresh at the time

http://diezvista50.ca/DV50/Course_Description.html

S

Race was awesome! It rained, it hailed and it was even dry for the last 5km or so.

I stuck to my nutrition plan, pushed a bit when I felt I could, and didn't let myself get into a funk when I was tired.

I had a goal of 8 hours with a stretch goal of 7:30. I rocked the course in 7 hours and 21 minutes, well ahead of pace.

Garmin Information: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/294234976

The winner finished in 4:05 which is just amazingly fast (in my opinion).

I will TOTALLY do another ultramarathon. I'm sorta half thinking about doing the Frosty 50km in September. It's supposed to be even harder

Thank you for the support guys!